Life isn’t always what it’s hyped up to be. Instead of this fluid, steady, and sweeping narrative, we find ourselves living stories written in disjointed, disordered, and uneven splices. We contemplate the Hand that wrote this story; we wonder at which point we went wrong, at which fork in the road we took a … More When Expectations Leave You Empty
On a quiet night in Bethlehem, a curious plan was about to unfold. It was God’s plan. And just like any complex and moving story, it was a plan with moving characters and moving parts. It involved angels and shepherds and women and men; it spanned over decades and throughout generations. It was a story … More The Christmas Story
We took a family vacation to the Grand Canyon during the summer of 2008. It was June, and I was sixteen. We boarded a red eye flight to Flagstaff, Arizona, suitcases bursting with t-shirts and sunscreen. The plane was silent aside from my father’s calm voice, reassuring me at take-off. He spoke easily and composedly. He said that we would make it there safe. He was right. … More Remembering the Grand Canyon (God of Wonder)
I’m so easily swept away from the present moment— by my own running mind, by to-do lists, by the busyness of life. Soft sunrises and cricket harmonies were made for people like me— tangible reminders that pull me down to earth and ground me where I stand. God speaks through his creation, in a million … More On Being Present
I fell accidentally in love with a house on a lake. It’s white with red shutters, and there’s a For Sale sign stuck in the yard. The grass is freshly mowed. Two months worth of grass, in fact, have been grown and cut; the sign, however, does not budge. I found this house for sale, … More The Hands that Mold Us
I bet the sun flickered gently across the Sea of Galilee that morning. I bet it pierced the surface like a million shards of glass. The waves would have carried the light all the way to the shore, reflecting and refracting, winding and weaving. The sun, crashing in on wayward waters, would have settled on … More Despair and Desire
This post is a continuation of Stars and Grace: I / / / read it here The stars in Montana, the ones right above Rising Sun Campground in Glacier National Park, are some of the best I have seen to date. I noticed them while on my walk to the bathroom. Sore and stumbling from … More Stars and Grace: II
Something I do when my heart is overwhelmed is look up at the stars. I tilt back my head and let my hair fall loose, feeling like I did back in the tenth grade while standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon, at sunset. It was June and I was sixteen. Tourists flocked at the edge, … More Stars and Grace: I
It’s late August now in Michigan, and crickets croak in the afternoon heat. Their song is comforting and smooth, a predictable symphony that will usher in a Midwest autumn. By September the leaves will start to turn. Cinnamon and nutmeg, cardigans and leather boots. Burgundy, eggplant. The seasons won’t delay. But, right now it’s still the in-between, with both sticky air … More The Words that Hold it All Together
Here’s to the hard seasons. Here’s to the hard seasons built by moments that started small and few, but spiraled towards much and many- the culmination of difficult feats and disastrous blows. Here’s to the seasons that humble you, to the seasons that lay you flat and strip you bare. Here’s to the transitions that remind you, once … More On Hard Seasons
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